'Dangerous Rhetoric' is what she wrote about mail voting

In Nancy Churchill’s “Dangerous Rhetoric – Testing Ground” she states vote-by-mail is a bad idea started about 20 years ago by Democrat-leaning politicians and voices her concerns that vote-by-mail leads to voter fraud. That indeed is dangerous rhetoric since it is based on misinformation and an apparent lack of understanding of the history, purpose, and integrity of vote-by-mail in Washington State.

Vote-by-mail’s history goes back to 1971 when Republican Ralph Munro was Secretary of State for Washington. His concern to make voting accessible to all registered voters in Washington State led to a change in eligibility for permanent absentee ballots. During his term in office, significant changes were made in the way Washington State votes.

Following are some of the changes. In 1971, any registered voter aged 65 years or older or with a disability could apply for permanent absentee status. In 1983 all special elections were vote-by-mail. In 1991, any registered voter could get permanent absentee status by request. In 2005, vote-by-mail became a permanent part of the election process. Counties could choose to use in-person voting or vote-by-mail. By 2011, 38 of Washington’s 39 counties had switched to vote-by-mail.

The changes were made by the Washington state legislature under Republican and Democrat governors when the Senate and House of Representatives had either Republican or Democrat majorities. During this time, all Secretaries of State were Republicans. Vote-by-mail was a bipartisan effort to ensure every registered voter in Washington State had the opportunity to exercise his or her right to vote in our democracy. The budget was not the driving force behind these changes, assurance of a citizen’s ability to exercise his or her right to vote was. The purpose was to strengthen our democracy.

Major advantages of vote-by-mail include an auditable paper trail, ample time for citizens to research candidates and issues before voting, and provisions to safeguard the integrity of our elections. The major disadvantage is that it takes longer to get the results of the election.

To ensure against election fraud, voters’ signatures and eligibility are confirmed by personnel trained by the Washington State Patrol (WSP) fraud division. All ballots are kept in secure locations. Voters can check online to verify their ballots have been received and accepted and to protect the system from hackers, scanners used to count the ballots are not connected to any form of network or internet.

Washington State’s voting process is probably safer from manipulation than any other system in the U.S. Vote-by-mail is not a threat to democracy, it safeguards our democracy!

I urge voters to learn more about how vote-by-mail is conducted in Washington State. A clear and simple illustration of the process is the “Washington State Vote-by-Mail Fact Sheet” available at https://www.sos.wa.gov/_assets/elections/wa_vbm.pdf.

Former Secretary of State Republican Sam Reed’s opinion of “How Washington State’s voting system became the best” can be read at

http://www.crosscut.com